Former Melrose Placestar Brooke Langton has been cast as Christine Brennan, TVGuide.com has learned exclusively. Astute viewers may recall that Brennan's mom — who was murdered two years after she and her bank-robbing husband Max (Ryan O'Neal) abandoned Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and her brother to go the run — was previously portrayed by Larisa Miller.Perhaps the recasting has to do with the fact that this time around, Brennan's mom doesn't appear in a flashback, but rather in the flesh before her daughter after a traumatic experience. "This near-death experience was a way for us to reintroduce [Brennan's] mother in a very personal way," executive producer Stephen Nathan tells us. "We get to see her mom and her relationship with her mother. What happened on the day her mother left? What was that last moment like for her and how has that affected her and made her who she is today?"

But the spectral sight might also present bigger questions for Brennan, whose love of science generally makes her a bit of a skeptic. "Whether she believes that [this encounter] actually occurred or whether it was a chemical release in the brain that caused her to hallucinate, she has to deal with that," Nathan says. Adds creator Hart Hanson: ""There is one thing [Brennan] can't explain. She learns something in the after-death experience that she can't explain and that is troubling for her."In addition to her role as Samantha Reilly on Melrose, Langton has also recurred on such shows as Friday Night Lightsand Life. She most recently guest-starred on The Mentalist. Bones airs Mondays at 8/7c on Fox. An airdate for Langton's episode has not yet been set.